Music Manager Selling Modern Carnegie Hill Condo for $4.25M

The renovated home is in a converted 1920s hotel in Manhattan’s Upper East Side

From the minimalist interiors and new gleaming white countertops, one would be hard pressed to guess Vernon J. Brown’s home is in a former 1920s hotel at the edge of Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill Historic District.

Part of that modern transformation was the doing of developers who converted the 23-story Adams Hotel on East 86th Street and Fifth Avenue into a condominium—one of the few on the Upper East Side—in the 1990s. The rest was a renovation Mr. Brown, a music industry manager who’s represented hip-hop legends from Notorious B.I.G. to Public Enemy and Lil’ Wayne’s Cash Money Records, carried out over several years.

The 11th-floor, three-bedroom unit hit the market this week for $4.25 million.

Recent updates to the home include redoing the kitchen in white lacquer and oak, and adding swanky appliances like a Wolfe six-burner stove and Sub-Zero refrigerator.

Mr. Brown particularly likes the master bathroom he remade, which could have been plucked from any new development in New York City, said listing agent Carol Staab of Douglas Elliman. It’s clad floor-to-ceiling in white marble and centers on a sculptural egg-shaped soaking tub.

“The master bath is really fabulous. It’s just like the master baths you see in uber luxury new developments, like 432 Park,” Ms. Staab said. It also has heated marble floors and a double vanity.

Mr. Brown—whose non-music clients also include former New England Patriots cornerback Ty Law and former Victoria’s Secret “Angel” May Andersen—bought the condo in 2003 for $2.45 million, property records show. He’s moving to Florida, where he’s already picked up a place in the downtown Brickell neighborhood of Miami.

The building’s rarity as a condo complex in the townhouse-co-op-filled Upper East Side has for years attracted a notable cohort. The mother of Donald Trump, Jr.’s estranged wife, Vanessa Haydon Trump, recently bought a $6.4 million apartment from the widow of former Fox executive Roger Ailes, according to Ms. Staab, who also represented that unit.

She’s also toured Paul McCartney through the building’s penthouse, where Mariah Carey once lived.

“Fifth Avenue is made up mostly of co-ops, it’s one of the few condos,” Ms. Staab said of the building, adding that the modern interiors have also made it a celebrity favorite.

“The building is prewar and classic but it’s also contemporary,” she said.